Borders and New Beginnings

These Sugar Loaf blocks have captured my interest -

They are nearly all I can think about.

I tried to find my photos of the original vintage quilt that first inspired these blocks – but it was a photo from within an antique shop maybe 4 years ago – I can’t even remember where!

The cropped photo was used as as background for THIS Quiltville Quote of the Day and I wrote more about this project in yesterday’s post.

With only that much to go on – I started experimenting.  And I’ve got it down to a formula of a certain number of strips in each strip set, the length of each strip determined to give me the least amount of waste with just enough “wiggle room” to re-trim the strip set should a cut go awry.  I am on a veritable roll!

Are there other things I could be sewing?  YES!  Those tulip blocks on my design wall seem to be languishing. I need to do more block cutting for those. 

This year’s Shoo Fly Shoo Leader & Ender project is still marching forward (As seen under my needle!) at quite a good clip – if I end up with enough blocks for two twin-sized quilts for Quiltville Inn I will be a happy camper. I’m thinking of two alternate ways of setting them just to keep things interesting.

And I’m starting to think about July and the release of our NEXT Leader & Ender challenge.  Whatever it might be.  Maybe something with ZERO triangles?

Dresden – keeping the packages from flying off of the counter!

A full load of mail order went out yesterday.  It was my main focus for the day and I am happy to say that only those orders that came in through the weekend are left to get out today.  It took Saturday and yesterday to get to this point.  I am determined to keep Sunday to myself on days that I am not on the road teaching.

Why am I mentioning that?  Because I think we all need to constantly reevaluate our boundaries and priorities.  Things tend to shift as we go through life.

I came across this great quote this morning:

Does this resonate with anyone else out there?

I loved my Super Sew Sunday this past weekend!  I need to leave myself more Sundays just to “BE”.  Whole, broken, imperfect, striving, becoming, me.

And there are some big shifts happening in the next week!!

The local Quilts of Valor group is coming to sew at Quiltville Inn on Friday.  YAY!  I am so looking forward to welcoming them.  I hope this will also help me meet more locals and build a sense of community in this far away, Boonie-land place.

There is also a basketball game at the local Oak Hill Academy tomorrow evening – and that might be fun to go support the kids. This private school is KNOWN for their basketball program.  Rooting for the home team is another way to get out and meet people and find ourselves a place in this community.

NEXT WEEK – The Pieceful Hearts group is coming up from North Augusta, SC/ Augusta, GA for our first OFFICIAL retreat weekend.  This is really happening!

Measuring for borders is extremely interesting with these two around!

Borders are on!

Quilting today, maybe?

This was the alternate green that I was thinking of using for my Frolic Mystery quilt. But I didn’t like the black in it – it just didn’t sing.  So I set it aside. 

Luckily there was enough yardage at the Quiltville Post Office that I could find a way to border the quilt with just these two fabrics to calm things down a bit. That center is a bit riotous!

And yes, there are riotously cut off and mismatched points included!

But I must say that I like it. I do.

Green has always calmed me.  I love green in a quilt.  But perhaps this one needs a scrappy binding to bring the color back to the outside edge? We shall see.

More green progress.

There are only the 4 blocks in the center remaining. Wintertime is perfect for curled up evenings of hand quilting.  Once those four center blocks are filled, I HOPE I have decided on something to do for the outer border!  Currently leaning toward clam shells…

Someone had asked why they hadn’t seen me hand quilting Jason’s hexagon quilt lately – and the simple reason is that I had one hand quilting project in Wallburg, and one here.  Now that I am here 90% of the time, the other quilt has been put away until I finish this one and then it will move back into play. 

While it seems I can machine piece on multiple projects – I can only make myself hand quilt on one thing at a time.  Go figure!

Spring 2020 Free Motion Quilting Academy registration is in full swing– the course starts February 17th, with registration only available now through the 15th, so don’t delay!

I understand there was a problem with my previous link (which has been fixed) and it had the page jumping around. Who knows why – I think it was a bad copy/paste job on my end. Sorry!

Module 1 went live yesterday – there is still time to catch up if you want to know what the course is all about.  There is so much info you can glean from just this free introduction alone!  

Let this be the year that you learn to quilt your own projects with confidence.

You will find the information you need on Saturday’s post which also includes our Quiltmaker Gift-Away, still going on! (Did you enter to win yet?)

Okay. Time to kick myself into gear and get moving.  There is a quilt backing to prepare, a quilt to load, a quilt to quilt – there is a very quilty day ahead!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Confidence isn't automatic. It isn't something we are born with, but it comes when we are ready to face scary or uncomfortable opportunities!

It's important to have confidence in the knowledge that we can even learn from our mistakes and that they don't define us.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!.